In web-handling machinery, e.g. winding and unwinding machines for cardboard or paper webs, it is necessary during replacement of rolls to sever the webs transversely in a reliable manner.
For this purpose, various cutting means are utilized, depending on the weight per area of the web, which exhibit various disadvantages Thus, fixed blades fastened upon a knife slide must be replaced frequently because of wear, cutting beams with toothed knives require very high cutting forces, and driven circular knives utilized for high web weights per unit area require in addition to the linear drive for this procedure an additional rotary drive.
In order to avoid the need for a rotary drive for a driven circular knife, a transverse cutter is proposed in DE-PS 36 38 777, which has a wheel rigidly connected to a knife shaft and which rolls along a rod running parallel to the track of the slide carrying the knife. Due to the geometric and friction interaction between wheel and rod a rotary motion is imparted to the circular blade by the linear motion of the slide carrying the knife.